Lahat ng Kabanata ng THE ALPHA I WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO LOVE : Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

The calendar glared back at me. Three years left. I watched the numbers swim until my vision blurred.June 14.Three years ago. The start of another summer—well, that’s what I’d thought at the time. But the truth? It was three years before my own execution.My hand hovered over the paper. It shook. I whispered, “It’s real.” The sound barely filled the tiny room.In my head, I counted backward. Twenty-two. I was twenty-two. My brother was alive. Lucian was alive. And somewhere out there, the people who’d tear my life apart… they were still out there, still living like nothing was coming.I yanked the calendar off the wall. I needed something more—something solid. I opened the drawer by my bed. Under a mess of ribbons and old letters, I found it. A birthday invitation. My twenty-second birthday. Same date. My gut twisted hard. This wasn’t a nightmare. This was real. I’d come back.But why?Who decided I deserved another shot at life? And why did Darius Veyne give me that look, like he a

“Then tell me who stopped you.”Darius froze. I was still gripping his wrist, but neither of us made a move for a long moment.“I don’t know,” he finally said.I let go, frowning. “That’s not good enough.”“I know.”“You watched me die.”“Yes.”“You knew it was going to happen.”“Yes.”“And you tried to stop it.”His jaw clenched. “Yes.”“So someone stopped you.”He fell silent. That was answer enough.I stepped in closer. “Who?”“I don’t know.”“You keep saying that.”“Because it’s true.”I studied his face. The arrogance, the detached Alpha mask—gone. I just found frustration there. Maybe fear. Somehow, that unsettled me way more than his usual coldness.“If you remember I was executed,” I said, “then you remember something useful.”He looked away. “Some memories come as flashes.”“Flashes?”“One second I’m standing in snow. The next, a room I’ve never seen. Sometimes I hear your voice. Sometimes my own hands are covered in blood.” He glanced at me again. “But there are gaps.”“Conv

The assassin’s body was still warm on the ground when I turned to Darius.“You knew.”He didn’t flinch. Just looked straight at me.The black ring sat in the dirt between us—almost like proof.“You knew my brother was going to die.”No change in his face.“I remembered it.”“That’s not an answer.”“It’s the only answer I have.”I moved closer, feeling the anger rise.“You knew when and where it would happen. You knew someone was out to get him.”“I remembered pieces.”“Pieces?” My voice was louder now.“You remembered enough to knock me out of the arrow’s path, enough to recognize the ring, enough to know my brother might die. But you never remember anything helpful when I ask who killed me?”His jaw clenched.“Seren.”“No.” I jabbed my finger toward the dead man. “You knew something like this was coming.”“I suspected.”“You suspected?”“I wasn’t sure.”“You could have told me.”“I didn’t know if telling you would change anything.”“It already changed!” My voice cracked. “My brother’

Lucian caught up to me before I could hit the stairs.“Seren.”I stopped but I didn’t turn right away. I didn’t have to feel his hand to know he was there—some part of me always knew when he was close. That was the most infuriating part. My body remembered everything. My heart? Not so much.When I finally turned, Lucian’s face wore that lost look he’d had since I came back. He stared at me like he was searching for something that wasn’t there anymore.“What?” I said.“You’ve been avoiding me,” he said.“I’ve been busy.”He didn’t let it go. “With what?”“Living.”His jaw tightened at that. “That’s not an answer.”“It’s the only one you’re going to get.”He stepped in, closer than I wanted. Three years ago, I might have noticed the way he looked at me—how his eyes softened. Back then, I would’ve thought it meant he loved me. Now I saw it for what it really was: entitlement.“You’re different,” he said quietly.“I know.”“You barely look at me anymore.”“Maybe I finally figured out wher

“Your mother was involved in something long before you were born.”Darius’s words hung over me as we left the archive. I barely registered the guards or the servants—my mind was stuck on that record, on my mother’s name under the crescent moon, and the fear I’d caught in Darius’s eyes.She’d been gone twenty-two years. What could she possibly have done that still made powerful families so desperate to hide it?“Where are we going?” I asked. Darius glanced over his shoulder at me.“Somewhere we can talk. Alone.”“Should I be worried?”He gave me a half-smile. “You should always be worried when someone tells you not to ask questions.”Honestly, I almost smiled at that, then remembered his face in the archive—the way he looked at me. He’d seen something I hadn’t.“You know more than you’re letting on.”“Yes.”That simple honesty caught me off guard. I expected another vague answer, something to push me away from the truth. Instead, Darius opened a narrow door at the end of the corridor.